Night Shift
by galia-carrot
Summary: It's not the ideal situation but Trip and T'Pol have always made the best out of what they have, and they're both willing to try for their daughter. Even if it means working night shifts and not sleeping.


Night Shift

Trip makes his way down the corridor, it's nearly 5:30 in the morning and for the most part the ship is quiet. Ever since Elizabeth had stabilized he and T'Pol have been working out how to care for a baby and keep their jobs, as it stands the agreement with Starfleet is that Elizabeth can stay with them if they both keep their work up to par, if not one of them would have to take her to Earth or Vulcan. Since the latter wasn't really an option unless they wanted her to live her life in an isolated Hospital room it had been decided Trip would take the night shift and stay with Elizabeth during the day and T'Pol would work during the day and care for her at night. Trip turns down the corridor that leads to T'Pol's quarters, he doesn't mind this arrangement, neither of them get much sleep anyway – though T'Pol doesn't need more then 4 hours to function normally – with having a teething baby so it's not like he wouldn't be tired if he worked normal hours.

He lets himself into T'Pol's quarters, another condition of their agreement, don't ring and risk waking up the baby. He's surprised to find the quarters dark, usually Elizabeth wakes to be fed around 5:00 so T'Pol will just wait up for him. He flicks on the light and can't help smile at what he sees:

T'Pol has removed Elizabeth from the small crib and put her in bed with her, this isn't that unusual, Trip knows that Vulcans sleep with their children for the first few years of life but he's never actually seen T'Pol and Elizabeth in bed together. Elizabeth has a bit of T'Pol's pajama shirt clutched in her tiny fist, her blue eyes are closed and her little tuft of hair sticks up behind her. T'Pol must've only been far more exhausted then she was letting on because he's never seen her this asleep, it makes him feel bad for having to wake her.

"T'Pol." He says, sitting on the edge of the bed and lifting Elizabeth into his arms. "T'Pol, your shift starts in an hour and a half." She opens her eyes somewhat reluctantly. "What? Long night?"

"She had a fever." She mutters. "Phlox insists it's normal for a human child while teething but I thought it best to monitor it, I must've fallen asleep."

Trip frowns and looks at the baby. "Did you keep your Momma up worrying about you? Did you do that?" He chuckles, the sleeping baby shifts in his arms and opens her blue eyes.

"Now you've woken her again." T'Pol mutters getting out of bed.

"Ah she ain't crying she'll be fine." Trip insists, standing up. "I'll take her to my quarters so you can get ready in peace."

T'Pol gives him a look. "Very well, if her fever rises take her to Phlox and let me know."

"Will do." He says and leaves her quarters. His and T'Pol's relationship has become what he can only equate to as being that of a divorced couple, they both love their daughter but it's complicated. Aside from his family not approving of her and most of her planet not approving of him there was the simple fact that they are raising the most complicated little girl in the galaxy.

Elizabeth is a wonderful, surprisingly sweet for a little girl who'd had little positive interaction for her first six months, but that was part of the problem. No one could say for sure if she'd have long term emotional problems from the way Terra Prime treated her and she certainly appears to pick up on emotion in conversation giving further evidence to her emotional sensitivity. Possible Emotional scarring aside her physical health isn't very good either, Phlox's prognosis was that it would likely never be good enough for her to leave the ship – assuming she lives long enough to ever want to. Yes, Elizabeth's health is enough to put the healthiest of relationships to the test, but he and T'Pol don't have the healthiest of relationships.

He pushes the button to enter is quarters and sets Elizabeth in the small crib on one side of the room. Here it is even more apparent that they don't live together, Elizabeth has two of everything, cribs, clothes, and even blankets. It's a tedious really, neither of them thought they'd be parenting the most complicated child in the galaxy and if Trip was being honest with himself, neither was sure they'd make the best of parents.

Pulling on an old T-shirt he's relieved that he looks over and finds Elizabeth asleep, he turns off the lights and gets into bed. As lonely and strange as his family may now be he knew that come the end of T'Pol's shift and thus the brief amount of time the three of them could spend together that he'd not share any of this with her and things would continue as normal.

 _Perhaps it's for the better_ he thinks as he rolls over, _Perhaps the universe just ain't ready for the first human-vulcan family just yet. Best to leave that to someone else._

* * *

 **A/N - This is what I've decided to upload in place of Synesthesia for this week. It has been a really tough week and on Wednesday we got some pretty bad news about our dog and that coupled with being sick and tired most of the week has made writing tough.**

 **This piece was actually going to be included as a flashback early in Synesthesia but I ended up cutting it out so I cleaned it up, added a better ending and have decided to post it as a one-shot.**

 **Updates should be back to normal next week.**

 **\- Galia**


End file.
